Nine Sols

The most painful 4.5 I've had to give. Edit: Nah, fuck it, it's a 5/5 Nine Sols is a "Taopunk" Metroidvania with an emphasis on parrying. The developer is a Taiwanese studio and the game takes HEAVY inspiration from Chinese and Taoist mythology, which is an aesthetic and setting rarely explored in video games. We play as Yi, a small white Solarian (which are essentially cat people aliens) on a place called New Kun Lun. For a good chunk of the game we're kept in the dark as to what this place is, why it's deserted and why Yi is dead set on eliminating the rest of his fellow councilmen called Sols. Compared to most of his Metroidvania peers, Yi is a fully fleshed out character. He rides a fine line between an anime edge lord and a compelling, complex, overly-rational protagonist. The way he talks to others, often omitting important information and dealing with half truths (probably why he's designed to not have a mouth) is a very interesting narrative choice for a protagonist. More importantly he goes through a compete character arc, mostly as a result of interacting with the colourful and deep cast of supporting characters. The narrative and writing are probably the most unexpectedly fantastic aspects of this game. I went into it expecting a 2D Sekiro, but quickly I realised that this story had the potential to be unforgettable. I won't go into any more detail but I really think it's a special world with phenomenally written characters and their interactions, they each work on thematic and narrative levels, with some of the boss Sols even incorporating their personality into the gameplay - resulting in some beautiful ludonarrative harmony. For a Metroidvania, the game is actually fairly linear. At first I found this to be slightly disappointing, but after 100%ing the game I can see that it really couldn't have worked in any other way. Think of each boss as an exam, you can't take a calculus exam without first learning how addition works, and Nine Sols is very much the same. The game is very difficult, but NEVER unfair or punishing. There is no boss runbacks, there is no attacks that aren't telegraphed but you cannot beat this game without learning to use every single system it presents you. You have to parry every move that's parryable, you have to use your unlockable skills, you should only dodge when there's absolutely no other option. This results in a weird dynamic with bosses where in most cases I would get my ass whooped for ~20 attempts, but then something would click and I would wipe the floor with them, barely taking any damage. It becomes a flow state simulator and it's a feeling I haven't seen many games successfully replicate. Ji, Jiequan, Eigong and Lady Ethereal all belong in the video game boss hall of fame. The level design itself is fine. Aesthetically the Taopunk setting blending traditional Chinese architecture with sci fi elements looks original and beautiful, but the actual layout of the levels is just ok, nothing approaching the levels of Silksong for example. None of it is bad and there's frequent and forgiving shortcut unlocks, but nothing really sticks out either. The reason this isn't a 5/5 is simply because there's a general lack of enemy variety (the archetypes of enemies and minibosses are frequently reused), and the final act adds more repetitive and boring enemies to fight. I understand that it makes narrative sense but the gameplay suffers greatly and for some reason it throws multiple gauntlets of these lame enemies in a row. It almost soured the experience, but then the emotional payoff of the true ending, and probably the greatest final boss fight in recent memory, completely brought it back.